Share

Kate Hansen, a local Californian Olympic luge competitor, tweeted a video Wednesday — allegedly filmed on her cell phone — showing a wolf roaming the hallway outside her Olympic Village room in Sochi. However, it's actually a prank courtesy of ABC late night host Jimmy Kimmel, "Inside Edition" reports; several outlets report this has been confirmed by the United States Luge Association.

The description on the video posted to the 21-year-old Hansen's YouTube page reads, "I'm pretty sure this is a wolf wandering my hall in Sochi." It played upon the popular #SochiProblems and #SochiFail hashtags with various perceived problems with the city and its accommodations, along with Sochi's reputation for having stray dogs walking its streets. Hansen, who hails from La Cañada, is reportedly set to Skype with Kimmel for a taping of his show "Jimmy Kimmel Live" on Thursday.

The prank did what it was supposed to do, going viral and showing up everywhere from CNN to "Today" on Olympic home NBC. Kimmel, well known for previous shots at social media viral videos. The most notable was a fake "Worst Twerk Fail EVER" video where the woman in the video allegedly caught on fire while attempting to twerk — but she was actually a stuntwoman.

Previously in Without A Net

Looking below the radar of pop culture in L.A. and beyond. We bring you what's next, what's trending, what people are talking about and more. Follow lead Without A Net blogger Mike Roe at @MikeRoe on Twitter.